"We will challenge every Skidmore student to develop the intercultural understanding
and global awareness necessary to thrive in the complex and increasingly interconnected
world of the 21st Century." --Goal Two, Skidmore Strategic Plan (2005)

"Our wish for our students is to learn about and advocate for social justice in the
context of both American culture and the larger world… Fostering global awareness
throughout the Skidmore community." --Middle States Self-Study Final Report (2006)

In collaboration with the Associate Dean of Personnel, Development, and Diversity,
the Office of Intercultural Studies, works to address the foundational importance
of understanding diversity within the U.S. context and its relationship to transnational
encounters both locally and globally.

Engaging Goal II of our Strategic Plan, Intercultural Studies also seeks to further
the community's multidisciplinary understanding of the complexities underlying intersecting
social identities, power, and privilege, through an equity and social justice lens.

Responsibilities of this office vary depending upon institutional need, but may include:

Assisting with recruitment and retention of faculty, staff, and students from underrepresented
groups;

Providing training in the skills needed to interact effectively with people from varying
cultural backgrounds and social locations among faculty, staff, and students;

Collaborating with the Assistant Director for Equal Employment Opportunity and Workforce
Diversity and the Director of Student Diversity Programs, to plan, implement and enhance
programming related to intercultural studies, global understanding, diversity, equity,
and social justice;

Guiding research, teaching, and learning on the histories and theories of the multiple
diasporas that have informed the collective experiences of race, ethnicity, and other
forms of cultural difference, both within the United States and in the global context;

Designing measures to monitor, assess, and enhance the integration of cultural awareness
and intercultural understanding in the classroom;

Serving as a liaison to and providing leadership for diversity and intercultural programs
and services within a liberal arts context, especially with respect to teaching and
scholarship in the College.

Diversity and Inclusion at Skidmore College

Skidmore College is committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive community in which
members develop their abilities to live in a complex and interconnected world. Consistent
with our educational mission, we recognize ourselves as a community that respects
individual identities based on varying sociocultural characteristics, such as race,
ethnicity, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, national origin, first
language, religious and spiritual tradition, age, ability, socioeconomic status, and
learning style. We strive to create a socially just world that honors the dignity
and worth of each individual, and we seek to build a community centered on mutual
respect and openness to ideas—one in which individuals value cultural and intellectual
diversity and share the responsibility for creating a welcoming, safe, and inclusive
environment. We recognize that our community is most inclusive when all members participate
to their full capacity in the spirited, and sometimes challenging, conversations that
are at the center of the College's educational mission.